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Lani

This is interesting. You have brought up something Ive been researching since 2000, the relationship between copper and cancer. There was a doctor, George Brewer, who lowered the serum copper of 18 advanced cancer patients by 80% using a copper chelator known as Ammonium Tetrathiomolybdate or TM for short. A few of his advanced cancer patients lived a fairly long time using this TM copper reduction. Recently a doctor, Linda Vadhat used TM copper reduction in treating Triple negative breast cancer patients who were able to attain a NED status. The disease was expected to return within 10 months. One of her copper reduced patients has been going for four years without evidence of disease return. Unfortunately Ammonium Tetrathiomolybdate is not yet FDA approved. The idea was to get it approved for the treatment of Wilson's disease. This is a hereditary disease where the body is burdened with excess copper. This excess copper gets deposited into the liver and brain where it can cause a fatal Cirrhosis and Parkinson symptoms. When the disease is found in early childhood the patient is put on a low copper diet and given copper chelators like Penicillamine and Trientine. They then can live a fairly normal lifespan. Unfortunately Penicillamine and Trientine have a lot of side effects. Recently Brewer and other physicians discovered that once the copper levels have been lowered sufficiently, they can be kept down by giving 50mg Elemental zinc ( a zinc salt is given) 3 times a day before meals. Chronic zinc ingestion causes the formation, in the intestine, of a protein called Metallothionein. This Protein acts as a copper chelator and prevents copper absorption, thus keeping the copper levels down. The zinc treatment has few side effects, unlike Penicillamine. There is a prescription form of Zinc Acetate with the brand name of Galzin which supplies 50mg Elemental zinc per tablet.

Paul

PS Brewers interest in copper and cancer did not involve energy production. It involved angiogenesis or new blood vessel formation. Once a metastatic tumor reaches a size of one million cells, (about the size of the smallest dot you can make with your pencil) blood vessels have to be made by the tumor in order to continue growing. Copper is an important cofactor in Angiogenesis. A lot of the proteins involved in angiogenesis are dependent on copper. By lowering the copper levels 80% using TM, his patients had sufficient copper to support life, but insufficient copper to support tumor angiogenesis.